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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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Second rate reporter says what?

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You can’t love your country only when you win.

T R E 4 5 O N

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After roe, women are no longer free.

In my day, never was longer.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Morning Open Thread: Earning Their Holiday Treats

Monday Morning Open Thread: Earning Their Holiday Treats

by Anne Laurie|  December 23, 20194:40 am| 119 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Pet Blogging

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According to @CatsProtection, dressing up your #cat in a #holiday #costume = bad idea. Accessories or outfits can agitate cats, restrict movement + impede normal behaviors like grooming. More #tips on avoiding holiday pet stress via @metroUK: https://t.co/D7XG3ljnc6

— Kinship.co (@kinshipco) December 17, 2019


… because the cat *will* get its revenge, even if you’re bleeding too freely to snap that perfect photo.

Dogs, on the other hand:

This is just to say

I have bought
my dog
a novelty hat

Forgive me
it was $3.99
and it is
so cute
and so stupid pic.twitter.com/iBgOQavt0P

— Lorraine Klimowich (@MsKlimowich) December 20, 2019

Hundreds of dachshunds showed up for this Christmas sausage walk in London's Hyde Park https://t.co/UlZ1wP6ook pic.twitter.com/j3dTicyy0s

— Travel + Leisure (@TravelLeisure) December 17, 2019

Alfie Dog enjoying a festive pint at @oxfordtaproom in his jaunty sweater. pic.twitter.com/Ez78JQYgFM

— Kate Udle (@KateUdle) December 22, 2019

casually shopping for christmas sweaters for dogs when suddenly pic.twitter.com/PWjqGrn2B0

— Laina (@laina622) December 22, 2019

This dude actually looks pleased with his new garb…

Two students made a holiday costume for our class pet! pic.twitter.com/Z2TPJorbVw

— Katie Smith (@smithkatie10) December 19, 2019

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Reader Interactions

119Comments

  1. 1.

    Amir Khalid

    December 23, 2019 at 4:47 am

    Bianca has all her life refused to wear even a collar, let alone anything more restraining. So I’m kind of glad there is no tradition out here of dressing pets in embarrassing holiday costumes.

    How do I banish the annoying red squiggle of spellcheck on my brand-new (used) Win10 laptop?

  2. 2.

    JPL

    December 23, 2019 at 4:50 am

    Merry Christmas Again.

  3. 3.

    sab

    December 23, 2019 at 4:51 am

    Giving my cats new Felway plugin diffusers for Christmas.

  4. 4.

    Nelle

    December 23, 2019 at 4:59 am

    Immantize – how long was your “cold” (the virus seems far worse than a cold)? Did you get laryngitis? Seems quite widespread. My daughter is on week four, husband week two, and me week two. The coughing is extreme.

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    December 23, 2019 at 5:03 am

    A few years ago, Bored Panda did a cute compilation of adorable animals in tiny colourful sweaters.

    https://www.boredpanda.com/cute-animals-wearing-tiny-sweaters/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

  6. 6.

    eclare

    December 23, 2019 at 5:31 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: Too much cuteness!

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

    December 23, 2019 at 5:47 am

    Good Morning, Everyone ? ??

  8. 8.

    Baud

    December 23, 2019 at 5:49 am

    @rikyrah:  Good morning.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    December 23, 2019 at 5:59 am

    @Amir Khalid: You should be able to switch it off using settings.

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    December 23, 2019 at 6:10 am

    It has been raining here for two days straight. This morning I got up super early — on purpose! — so I could pop a breakfast casserole in the oven for the mister to take to work to feed the crew (as a holiday treat; we’re not normally obligated to feed them). Moments after he went out the door, I noticed he’d forgotten the spatula, so I hastily put on my boots that were by the door and ran downstairs to deliver the spatula before he went through the gate. Good thing I wore boots — the standing water in the driveway would have over-topped a pair of ordinary shoes.

  11. 11.

    MagdaInBlack

    December 23, 2019 at 6:20 am

    It’s supposed to be 50 on Christmas, here in Chicagoland, and I’m good with it ?

  12. 12.

    Raven

    December 23, 2019 at 6:28 am

    @Betty Cracker: same here and now we have to load the van and drive to Virginia!

  13. 13.

    sab

    December 23, 2019 at 6:28 am

    @Betty Cracker: Wow. Wishing you well. I am in a drought prone pocket in Ohio ( NE). We pray for water. God delivers, but he usually delivers on five years of fervent prayers by delivering one massive rainstorm. We are high escalation, so it works okay for us, worse for the guys downstream in flatlands.

  14. 14.

    WereBear

    December 23, 2019 at 6:47 am

    I once put a sweater on Tristan. Let me give this a try:

    Tristan image, wearing a rugby sweater.

    He lasted long enough for me to snap the picture, so sweet is his heart. Then he started wrestling it off himself, and I helped.

  15. 15.

    WereBear

    December 23, 2019 at 6:48 am

    @Amir Khalid: For safety, cat collars need to be breakaways, and all my cats do so. :) So it’s kind of pointless for any of mine, and I embraced chipping when it came along.

  16. 16.

    WereBear

    December 23, 2019 at 6:49 am

    @Nelle: I just got OVER that. Didn’t sleep for a week, seemed like.

  17. 17.

    debbie

    December 23, 2019 at 6:58 am

    @Nelle: 
    I had it for 12 weeks, but then I have asthma and probably took longer to recover. Tons of coughing and some loss of acuity which seems to have been resolved.

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    December 23, 2019 at 7:05 am

    @Amir Khalid
    Use the Windows key and I key shortcut shortcut to open Settings.
    Click Devices, then click Typing.
    In the Spelling options, switch the Autocorrect misspelled words and Highlight misspelled words to Off.

    Also, FYI, some additional things relating to Win 10 and privacy settings which you may find useful to skim:
    #1 – #2

  19. 19.

    NotMax

    December 23, 2019 at 7:09 am

    @NotMax

    D’oh, keyboard shortcut, not shortcut shortcut.

  20. 20.

    satby

    December 23, 2019 at 7:18 am

    @rikyrah: @MagdaInBlack: Good morning ?. I thank your deity of choice that it is going to be that warm because the high point of my day today will be if I can get a furnace guy to come fix the furnace.

  21. 21.

    JPL

    December 23, 2019 at 7:21 am

    @satby: I hope that your furnace is repaired soon.

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    December 23, 2019 at 7:22 am

    @satby

    Anticipating last minute holiday madness at the market? Also, have you now fully reclaimed your four feet there?

  23. 23.

    satby

    December 23, 2019 at 7:24 am

    @JPL: thanks, me too! Though if it had to quit, quitting during a December “heat wave” is not a bad time. It’s only 5 years old, so I’m hoping it’s nothing major.

  24. 24.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    December 23, 2019 at 7:27 am

    Woke up, was surprised to see that it was 6:45, congratulated myself for a great night’s sleep, then realized that I didn’t go to bed until after 3:00 because I stayed up watching the 1925 Ben-Hur on TCM. D’oh! So about 3½ hours’ sleep.

    I fed the housecat and am nowcontemplating whether to go back to sleep or get up and save a possible nap for later.

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 23, 2019 at 7:30 am

    @Nelle: I’m now starting week 2, drinking cough syrup like an alcoholic on the Sunday morn of a 3 day bender, and I’ve already got one abdominal muscle tear and I think I’m getting a 2nd.

  26. 26.

    satby

    December 23, 2019 at 7:31 am

    @NotMax: Victory in the space wars was mine! The market treasures and marked the spaces again, and removed the flooring the other vendor had laid in my space (basically a 5 inch border board). She was pissed, but we’re very cordial now.

    No idea what the traffic will be tomorrow, but the last two Saturdays were insane. So at least I can pay for a furnace repair, though I was hoping to put that bounty to a different use. Still, it’s all good.

  27. 27.

    satby

    December 23, 2019 at 7:33 am

    @Steeplejack (phone): do both, it’s good for you ?

  28. 28.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 23, 2019 at 7:36 am

    @Raven:

    Safe travels. That goes for all jackals over the holidays, whether they’re going cross country or just cross town.

  29. 29.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 23, 2019 at 7:37 am

    @WereBear:

    Tristan looks pissed off.

  30. 30.

    Nelle

    December 23, 2019 at 7:39 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: What do you do about the muscle tear?  My daughter was driving, began coughing so hard she felt something pop, and managed to get the car safely off an exit ramp.  Went to the doc and they sent her to xray.  Nothing broken so “try not to cough so hard.”  The coughing is somewhere between spasm and convulsion.

  31. 31.

    Kay

    December 23, 2019 at 7:44 am

    Oh, it’s not going well, Christmas. They’re all either mad or sad for various reasons unrelated to Christmas. I went in to work early and I think I’ll stay here until it’s over.

    I have coffee and Christmas cookies the staff left- I can get by :)

  32. 32.

    Kay

    December 23, 2019 at 7:46 am

    I might say I’m sick. Call in sick. Or just no-show. Better.

  33. 33.

    khead

    December 23, 2019 at 7:47 am

    If I tried dressing any of our cats – other than Gracie – I’m pretty sure I would bleed. Like, a lot.

  34. 34.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 23, 2019 at 7:53 am

    @Nelle: What do I do about it? I grab it, hold it when I cough, and deal with the pain. Not much else one can do except pop a couple oxies. Speaking of which, you got any extra? The junkies out here are too greedy and won’t share with me.

  35. 35.

    Josie

    December 23, 2019 at 7:54 am

    @Nelle:

    I am on my second month and finally can control the coughing.  For the last month I didn’t go anywhere without cough drops in my pocket and slept (a term I use loosely) with a cough drop wedged between cheek and gum.  It is one of the worst viruses I can remember.  Also, I think being older might make it harder to recover.  Hopefully you are younger than I am.  Hang in there.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    December 23, 2019 at 8:11 am

    People are praising Eddie Murphy on SNL, but I haven’t seen anyone mention the Christmas dinner sketch, which I thought was hilarious. Maybe it triggered too many folks.

  37. 37.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 23, 2019 at 8:11 am

    @Kay:

    Your family is probably texting all their friends about how on edge you are, and who knows why?

  38. 38.

    WereBear

    December 23, 2019 at 8:16 am

    @satby: You keep RULING!

  39. 39.

    PST

    December 23, 2019 at 8:17 am

    @MagdaInBlack:

    It’s supposed to be 50 on Christmas, here in Chicagoland

    The grass is still green. How long can this last?

  40. 40.

    WereBear

    December 23, 2019 at 8:18 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Yes, there was considerable side-eye.

    People like to ask me if cats can wear costumes. As I explain in:

    Tristan wears a sweater

    the cat will definitely let you know if they want to or not! :)

  41. 41.

    Immanentize

    December 23, 2019 at 8:22 am

    @Nelle: hi

    Happy Holidays!!

    FOUR weeks.  Not the flu as I never had a fever.  Just respiratory crap.  For the Immp, his cough went on an extra week.  He would be fine for the day then cough uncontrollably at bedtime.  I set up a humidifier in his room and that helped.

     

    I did not get laryngitis but a couple of my students did from the virus.  Several (including me?) Actually had follow up bronchitis, so that was part of the problem.  It was a bear.

  42. 42.

    Immanentize

    December 23, 2019 at 8:26 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Ha! Or Blech! I got a muscle pull from coughing too! Brother in Bummers!

  43. 43.

    Immanentize

    December 23, 2019 at 8:27 am

    @satby: The Battle of the Bulge (Market Stall scale) reenactment went well, I see.  I am so happy for you.

  44. 44.

    khead

    December 23, 2019 at 8:28 am

    @Nelle:

    It’s been in our house.  Mrs Khead had it.  All of it.  Horrible cough, loss of voice, etc – but no fever.  It’s gotta be viral.  Took weeks for her to get over it.

  45. 45.

    JPL

    December 23, 2019 at 8:29 am

    It’s just drizzly now but the wind is still howling.   Raven is probably on his way, but he should drive slow until he get’s out of this me

  46. 46.

    khead

    December 23, 2019 at 8:30 am

    @Baud:

    Best sketch of the night.  Air mattresses suck.

  47. 47.

    BellyCat

    December 23, 2019 at 8:31 am

    @Nelle: Mucinex DM has done wonders to suppress the horrific cough spasms and help them be more productive. The duration? I’m on week four and only just tapering off in intensity. This thing is NASTY.

  48. 48.

    WereBear

    December 23, 2019 at 8:32 am

    @Immanentize: So glad I dodged the bronchitis, but when I went to the doctor they ran down everything I was already doing, like:

    humidifier

    OTC cough syrup

    decongestant (I always get the stuff you have to sign for, when I went back the second time they cautioned me about the limits and I yelled for the whole store to hear, “Yeah, I’m BREAKING BAD here” and everyone laughed.)

    the stuff that numbs your throat (which for me is worse than the symptoms)

    sleeping pills (NEVAH)

    until we finally arrived at cough syrup with codeine, which I knew would work, and it finally let me get on top of it.

    But you gotta do that dance. I can’t bring it up myself!

  49. 49.

    JPL

    December 23, 2019 at 8:43 am

    @Baud: lol   Probably to close to home for some but it was hilarious.

  50. 50.

    Immanentize

    December 23, 2019 at 8:44 am

    @Kay: playing good Christmas albums makes me either pick up my spirits, or weep.  Both useful effects during the season.

    My current favorite albums:
    Tracey Thorne: Tinsel and Light. Her version of Sister Winter is both — a weeper and then it picks you up (written by Sufjan Stevens). But the whole thing is fabulous.

    Nick Lowe: Quality Street.
    Just fabulous from start to finish. Extra smiley — the rockabilly song, North Pole Express. Also has a Ry Cooder collaboration, Dollar Short of Happiness, with the great line “No more crazy Nannies getting high in the SUV….”

    And Low: Christmas.
    The first song, Just Like Christmas, about a drive from Stockholm to Oslo I play over and over and never get tired of it. There is also a great song called, If you Were Born Today (… they would kill you by age eight). Sad song.

    That’s just three. Music helps.

  51. 51.

    WereBear

    December 23, 2019 at 8:48 am

    @Immanentize: On the other hand, I heard the worst combo ever while grocery shopping. Country/Christmas.

    I have a limited tolerance for either, and combining them was, for me, excruciating.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    December 23, 2019 at 8:54 am

    @Immanentize:

    I like “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” (if that is the name)

    It’s so melancholy.

  53. 53.

    Immanentize

    December 23, 2019 at 8:58 am

    @WereBear: I am just not a fan of modern country from Nashville anything.  I do have a George Jones Xmas album with like one listenable song and some Johnny Cash Christmas stuff, with only two or three that I can tolerate. So, I agree, even great country and Christmas just don’t seem to go together — except for the old timey hymns.

    Then there is Robert Earl Keene’s fabulous country send up, Merry Christmas from the Family

    ETA I imagine that Robert Earl song on permanent repeat at the Cracker Compound this time of year….

  54. 54.

    Kay

    December 23, 2019 at 8:59 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Oh, they know why :)

    If my daughter has this baby in the next 24 I get to peel out of here, so that could happen. I’ll arrive early, maybe. “Oh, did you not text that you were in labor? Musta been someone else- anyway- I’m here!”

  55. 55.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    December 23, 2019 at 8:59 am

    @satby:

    Great advice that I will save for the future! Unfortunately, this morning I went down the Twitter hole, so I’m up and somewhat alert. Time for Perry Mason anyway.

  56. 56.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 23, 2019 at 9:02 am

    I like Annie Lennox singing “In the Bleak Midwinter.”

  57. 57.

    Immanentize

    December 23, 2019 at 9:03 am

    @Kay:. My friend has an app on his phone that will call you at a designated time. He uses it to get calls during faculty meetings — so he can duck out with some “very important case issue that just came up.”. You need that for when your workmates are gathering…. Ring… “What? You think the baby’s coming? I’ll be right there!”

  58. 58.

    Immanentize

    December 23, 2019 at 9:05 am

    @Kay: “I’ll be home for Christmas” also can feel really sad if I let it.

  59. 59.

    JPL

    December 23, 2019 at 9:09 am

    @Immanentize: Even though I’m not religious, I enjoy the Holly and the Ivy.   I save my tears for the Publix commercials.

  60. 60.

    jeffreyw

    December 23, 2019 at 9:09 am

    I’m Dreaming

  61. 61.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 23, 2019 at 9:10 am

    @Immanentize: You wouldn’t maybe want to share the name of this app so some of us could take a look at it for, you know, research purposes?

  62. 62.

    Gvg

    December 23, 2019 at 9:10 am

    I had a cat that liked costumes and dress up. She was very vain, and loved attention. She is the only one I have met though.

    speaking of costumes, my sisters last cat always lost her collar very fast until I bought her one Christmas costume collar. I liked to take Christmas pet photos. I “knew” she would take it off after I snapped the photo and that would be fine. However a week later she hadn’t and even several months later, so we finally bought her a tag for it. Accidentally I had discovered a type she liked. It was very lose elastic inside a tube of fabric, like a hair scrunchy for women, if you know what I mean. The first was red velvet with bells sewn on for Christmas, however after we knew what to look for we found non holiday colors. She wore that type until she died years later.

  63. 63.

    Immanentize

    December 23, 2019 at 9:13 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: oh that’s fabulous.

    The Blind Boys of Alabama Christmas album, Go Tell it on the Mountain, has a version sung by Chrissie Hynde (of the Pretenders).  Also great but growlier.

     Live version

  64. 64.

    Immanentize

    December 23, 2019 at 9:15 am

    @Gin & Tonic: I’ll find it, but when I went from Apple to Android, I didn’t get it again…..

  65. 65.

    Immanentize

    December 23, 2019 at 9:16 am

    @jeffreyw: Clyde McPhatter!

  66. 66.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 23, 2019 at 9:17 am

    @WereBear:  My son in law had some Spotify playlist going while we were working in the kitchen yesterday that popped up some execrable version of Mel Torme’s Christmas Song that had me thinking if ol’ Mel had shot the performers in cold blood, not a jury in the world would have convicted him.

    Only two performers have ever done that song right, and both are long dead.

  67. 67.

    Immanentize

    December 23, 2019 at 9:18 am

    @Gvg: I think y’all just probably wore her down….,,?

  68. 68.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 23, 2019 at 9:18 am

    @PST: I have a bad feeling about this.  Surely a 50-degree Chicago Christmas means -10 and 2 feet of lake effect snow in the future.

  69. 69.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 23, 2019 at 9:22 am

    @Immanentize: Orange juice.  OJ more than any other fruit juice tends to keep my immune system in a fighting mood.  Not sure what it is.

  70. 70.

    Kathleen

    December 23, 2019 at 9:29 am

    @Betty Cracker: Yikes.  Just landed in Tampa.

  71. 71.

    satby

    December 23, 2019 at 9:37 am

    Oh, you all feel free to laugh at me! The furnace repair guy was booked, but while he called his tech to see if they could squeeze me in, he told me to go check the switch on the furnace (of course I had already checked the breaker). I hadn’t seen one, I told him, but he said all furnaces have them and look on the side.

    Yep, it has been flicked off. Probably by Bubba, who likes to hide in the utility closet away from loud noises. Heat on, no bill! Merry, happy!

  72. 72.

    James E Powell

    December 23, 2019 at 9:42 am

    I’m reading the several reports of illness on this thread and I’m worried. Whatever I got arrived Thursday night and intensified through the day on Friday. Hard, dry cough, comes in fits, wakes me up and keeps me awake. Massive headache (I rarely get headaches). Body ache and exhaustion. Yesterday ended up in the ER. They gave me steroids. A breathing treatment that I could barely do because I was coughing so much. Prescriptions for an inhaler and cough syrup with codeine. The last allowed me to sleep better, I only woke up three times! I worried reading the rest of you guys because you’re talking weeks not days.

  73. 73.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 23, 2019 at 9:42 am

    @satby: It’s a Christmas miracle! ?

    Go curl up next to a vent or radiator.

  74. 74.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 23, 2019 at 9:43 am

    A man accused of pretending to be gay to avoid deportation to his native Malaysia, where homosexual acts are illegal, has been granted asylum after the Home Office accepted that people could be gay and single.

    The result is being celebrated as a victory against outdated stereotypes about gay people.

    Yew Fook Sam, also known as Sam, faced deportation earlier this year after an immigration judge questioned why he could not prove any past relationships to help prove his sexuality.

    Gee, what a concept. Gay and single, whoocoodanode.

  75. 75.

    WereBear

    December 23, 2019 at 9:56 am

    @Gin & Tonic: Love the Velvet Fog. The cheek!

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 23, 2019 at 9:56 am

    @satby: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

  77. 77.

    Kay

    December 23, 2019 at 9:57 am

    @Immanentize:

    I feel like he/she will be early but my daughter thinks that’s “witchy”. It’s her first and people have been doing those superstitious things- the needle that swings one way for a girl or boy, that sort of thing. So now she has a whole category – “witchy” – for pregnancy. She dismisses these things.

    She said last night “I’m ready to meet this individual” meaning “baby” – is she an FBI agent? Only cops use that word.

  78. 78.

    O. Felix Culpa

    December 23, 2019 at 9:57 am

    @satby: Woot! And no laughing. That is a very merry outcome for you. Happy non-ironic holidays!

  79. 79.

    germy

    December 23, 2019 at 10:02 am

    A dog without a paw gets a hand pic.twitter.com/sEVFMnxrne

    — Land of cuteness (@landpsychology) December 22, 2019

  80. 80.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 23, 2019 at 10:07 am

    @Kay:

    She said last night “I’m ready to meet this individual” meaning “baby” 

    Wait.  Did her unborn baby get indicted?

  81. 81.

    James E Powell

    December 23, 2019 at 10:10 am

    The Pretenders’ 2000 Miles has got to be my favorite Christmas song. But the song that I play every Christmas is Darlene Love’s Christmas (Baby Please Come Home). Letterman had her on every year and what was cool was how the performance grew each year from her first performance in 1986 to her final Letterman performance in 2014.

    Sometimes I try to watch them in order. Every single time I am just blown away.

  82. 82.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 23, 2019 at 10:11 am

    Good News from India. BJP fucking lost another state.

    Jharkhand will no longer be ruled by the Bakwas and Jhoot Party

    Bakwas == Bullshit

    Jhoot == Lies

  83. 83.

    zhena gogolia

    December 23, 2019 at 10:11 am

    @Gin & Tonic:

    The other one’s name is Cole, I assume (not John G.).

  84. 84.

    Kay

    December 23, 2019 at 10:11 am

    The GOP ladies in my book club like Bloomberg. He’s running a ton of ads. They’re loosely attached to the Republican Party and none of them like Trump although all of them will probably vote for him again. There are 3 Democrats (including me) and they’ll all vote for the D nominee. It’s 6R to 3D which is actually pretty representative of the county.

    I don’t think they know Bloomberg is (now) a Democrat. The ads don’t say (probably deliberate, since he’s not really a Democrat). I didn’t say anything- I don’t feel like it’s my job to explain Michael Bloomberg. I just can’t get over the grossness of his buying 7% in polls when so many of the other candidates worked so hard for their 3%, or whatever. It seems unfair in the most basic sense.

  85. 85.

    Kay

    December 23, 2019 at 10:12 am

    The GOP ladies in my book club like Bloomberg. He’s running a ton of ads. They’re loosely attached to the Republican Party and none of them like Trump although all of them will probably vote for him again. There are 3 Democrats (including me) and they’ll all vote for the D nominee. It’s 6R to 3D which is actually pretty representative of the county.

    I don’t think they know Bloomberg is (now) a Democrat. The ads don’t say (probably deliberate, since he’s not really a Democrat). I didn’t say anything- I don’t feel like it’s my job to explain Michael Bloomberg. I just can’t get over the grossness of his buying 7% in polls when so many of the other candidates worked so hard for their 3%, or whatever. It seems unfair in the most basic sense.

  86. 86.

    laura

    December 23, 2019 at 10:18 am

    @satby: most excellent news.

    Also highly recommend Nick Lowe’s quality street

  87. 87.

    Kay

    December 23, 2019 at 10:18 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Did her unborn baby get indicted?

    Guffaw. Oh, well. Her husband is really nice. That’s one nice parent. More than many people have!

  88. 88.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 23, 2019 at 10:19 am

    @zhena gogolia: Naturally.

  89. 89.

    Immanentize

    December 23, 2019 at 10:22 am

    @Kay:
    There are yard signs popping up all over where I live North of Boston:
    ANY FUNCTIONING ADULT
    2020

  90. 90.

    satby

    December 23, 2019 at 10:22 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: ya know, I had other shit going on right then.

  91. 91.

    Betty Cracker

    December 23, 2019 at 10:26 am

    You’re not wrong! I adore that song. [ETA: meant to be a reply to Immanentize, but the reply button is buggered.]

  92. 92.

    eclare

    December 23, 2019 at 10:29 am

    @Immanentize: I’ve seen that bumper sticker here in Memphis.

  93. 93.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 23, 2019 at 10:35 am

    @Betty Cracker: Many thanks for amplifying some of my tweets. There is no guarantee that the protesters and marchers will succeed but for the first time in its 6 year rule is BJP getting such a massive push back and that is a good sign.

  94. 94.

    Kay

    December 23, 2019 at 10:41 am

    @Immanentize:

    That would be so sad. If Republicans were punished by …nominating a moderate Republican. The ad in Ohio has a crowd (sort of- there are blurry people in front of him). Where did this come from? He barely appears publicly. Maybe they’re actors. Probably employees.

    It is AMAZING the faith people have in rich people.

  95. 95.

    WereBear

    December 23, 2019 at 10:44 am

    @satby: It’s a Festivus Miracle!

  96. 96.

    satby

    December 23, 2019 at 10:47 am

    @WereBear: ? and a huge relief!

  97. 97.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 23, 2019 at 10:48 am

    THIRTY YEARS AGO, nearly half of Louisiana voted for a Klansman, and the media struggled to explain why.

    It was 1990 and David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, astonished political observers when he came within striking distance of defeating incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator J. Bennett Johnston, earning 43 percent of the vote. If Johnston’s Republican rival hadn’t dropped out of the race and endorsed him at the last minute, the outcome might have been different.

    Was it economic anxiety? The Washington Post reported that the state had “a large working class that has suffered through a long recession.” Was it a blow against the state’s hated political establishment? An editorial from United Press International explained, “Louisianans showed the nation by voting for Duke that they were mad as hell and not going to take it any more.” Was it anti-Washington rage? A Loyola University pollster argued, “There were the voters who liked Duke, those who hated J. Bennett Johnston, and those who just wanted to send a message to Washington.”

    What message would those voters have been trying to send by putting a Klansman into office?

    “There’s definitely a message bigger than Louisiana here,” Susan Howell, then the director of the Survey Research Center at the University of New Orleans, told the Los Angeles Times. “There is a tremendous amount of anger and frustration among working-class whites, particularly where there is an economic downturn. These people feel left out; they feel government is not responsive to them.”

    Duke’s strong showing, however, wasn’t powered merely by poor or working-class whites—and the poorest demographic in the state, black voters, backed Johnston. Duke “clobbered Johnston in white working-class districts, ran even with him in predominantly white middle-class suburbs, and lost only because black Louisianans, representing one-quarter of the electorate, voted against him in overwhelming numbers,” The Washington Post reported in 1990. Duke picked up nearly 60 percent of the white vote. Faced with Duke’s popularity among whites of all income levels, the press framed his strong showing largely as the result of the economic suffering of the white working classes. Louisiana had “one of the least-educated electorates in the nation; and a large working class that has suffered through a long recession,” The Post stated.

    By accepting the economic theory of Duke’s success, the media were buying into the candidate’s own vision of himself as a savior of the working class. He had appealed to voters in economic terms: He tore into welfare and foreign aid, affirmative action and outsourcing, and attacked political-action committees for subverting the interests of the common man. He even tried to appeal to black voters, buying a 30-minute ad in which he declared, “I’m not your enemy.”

    Duke’s candidacy had initially seemed like a joke. He was a former Klan leader who had showed up to public events in a Nazi uniform and lied about having served in the Vietnam War, a cartoonishly vain supervillain whose belief in his own status as a genetic Übermensch was belied by his plastic surgeries. The joke soon soured, as many white Louisiana voters made clear that Duke’s past didn’t bother them.

    Many of Duke’s voters steadfastly denied that the former Klan leader was a racist. The St. Petersburg Times reported in 1990 that Duke supporters “are likely to blame the media for making him look like a racist.” The paper quoted G. D. Miller, a “59-year-old oil-and-gas lease buyer,” who said, “The way I understood the Klan, it’s not anti-this or anti-that.”

    Duke’s rejoinder to the ads framing him as a racist resonated with his supporters. “Remember,” he told them at rallies, “when they smear me, they are really smearing you.”

    The economic explanation carried the day: Duke was a freak creature of the bayou who had managed to tap into the frustrations of a struggling sector of the Louisiana electorate with an abnormally high tolerance for racist messaging.

    While the rest of the country gawked at Louisiana and the Duke fiasco, Walker Percy, a Louisiana author, gave a prophetic warning to The New York Times.

    “Don’t make the mistake of thinking David Duke is a unique phenomenon confined to Louisiana rednecks and yahoos. He’s not,” Percy said. “He’s not just appealing to the old Klan constituency, he’s appealing to the white middle class. And don’t think that he or somebody like him won’t appeal to the white middle class of Chicago or Queens.”

    ………………………………………..

    One hundred thirty-nine years since Reconstruction, and half a century since the tail end of the civil-rights movement, a majority of white voters backed a candidate who explicitly pledged to use the power of the state against people of color and religious minorities, and stood by him as that pledge has been among the few to survive the first year of his presidency. Their support was enough to win the White House, and has solidified a return to a politics of white identity that has been one of the most destructive forces in American history. This all occurred before the eyes of a disbelieving press and political class, who plunged into fierce denial about how and why this had happened. That is the story of the 2016 election.

    The more things change and all that.

  98. 98.

    Steeplejack

    December 23, 2019 at 10:49 am

    For some reason the Christmas music that is annoying me this year is anything with Bing Crosby’s syrupy crooning. He doesn’t usually bother me, but this year . . . I think it’s because one of his songs is in a TV ad that runs constantly.

    Over the years I have built up a good collection of Christmas jazz. Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown music, of course, but lots of other stuff. I’ll spare you Coltrane’s “Greensleeves,” or maybe wait until Christmas Eve.

    Willie Nelson has a good Christmas album, Pretty Paper. Not country! Well, maybe country-adjacent.

  99. 99.

    WereBear

    December 23, 2019 at 10:50 am

    @satby: I don’t know which feeling is warmer: getting heat or dodging a repair bill!

  100. 100.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 23, 2019 at 10:51 am

    @satby: Yeah, people always have other things going on. Besides you said feel free to laugh, and I couldn’t help it because it’s exactly the sort of thing that would happen to me.

  101. 101.

    Yarrow

    December 23, 2019 at 10:52 am

    Well, I started off my day with a funeral. Couldn’t be there in person but they had a live feed set up. It’s a very weird way to start a day. I have a zillion things I need to do but I’m sad and kind of alone in my grief since I’m not getting to grieve with everyone else who is there. Melancholy before Christmas.

  102. 102.

    Jess

    December 23, 2019 at 10:55 am

    This dude actually looks pleased with his new garb…

    Goats always look pleased with themselves. It’s a part of their evil charm.

  103. 103.

    MagdaInBlack

    December 23, 2019 at 10:55 am

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Oh we will pay, Im sure, but, for now, its good

  104. 104.

    Steeplejack

    December 23, 2019 at 10:55 am

    I just got a call that the doughty Kia is ready to be picked up at the dealer—a day earlier than I thought. And I didn’t even get to drive the loaner Forte around very much. It’ll be good to start the year with the K-Whip in peak condition.

    Of course this will involve me shaving, showering and putting on the tactical gear (pants!), so it will be a while before I get going. Maybe I’ll reward myself with lunch at my local. Oh, wait, can’t do that. Bro’ Man has gone into needy bachelor mode since his family decamped for Brazil on Saturday, so I’m going over to Sighthound Hall tonight for pizza and whine wine. Don’t want to spoil my appetite.

  105. 105.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 23, 2019 at 10:57 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Also, not mentioned enough is the fact that the second-ranking republican in the House once described himself as “David Duke without the baggage.

    And don’t think that he or somebody like him won’t appeal to the white middle class of Chicago or Queens.”

    Queens. The borough that gave the world Archie Bunker and Donald Trump. And the crew from Entourage.

  106. 106.

    zhena gogolia

    December 23, 2019 at 11:00 am

    @Yarrow:

    I’m sorry.

    We’re doing okay this Christmas, but the Trump disaster casts a pall over everything. Pure joy is not to be had.

  107. 107.

    Kelly

    December 23, 2019 at 11:05 am

    @satby: First time I had a car with a child safety switch for the locks and windows I took it to the dealer when the passenger window quit working. Service manager showed me the switch and sent me on my way, no charge.

  108. 108.

    satby

    December 23, 2019 at 11:22 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: no, it’s cool. I told the guy in the phone I felt like an idiot, but at least I had sort of looked for the switch.

  109. 109.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    December 23, 2019 at 11:26 am

    @satby:

    Oh thank goodness.

    I just got back from the gym to discover my building has no hot water.

  110. 110.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 23, 2019 at 11:44 am

    The other night Subaru Diane posted some completely unhinged and irrational rant about wind turbines from the moron who currently occupies the Oval Office. Several people asked for a link, and I don’t know how that thread developed because I went to sleep.

    Anyway, that unhinged rant did actually take place, and now somehow Phil Bump of the WaPo must be paying for a multitude of prior sins, because he’s been tasked with cleanup duty, trying to explain the addled rantings of this moron to us mortals. Read at your own risk.

  111. 111.

    Kathleen

    December 23, 2019 at 11:45 am

    @Baud: That was brilliant. I laughed so hard I cried.

  112. 112.

    Yarrow

    December 23, 2019 at 12:01 pm

    @zhena gogolia:  Thank you. It’s been a rough holiday season.

  113. 113.

    Miss Bianca

    December 23, 2019 at 12:23 pm

    @satby: Joy Joy! : )

  114. 114.

    J R in WV

    December 23, 2019 at 12:23 pm

    @Kelly:

    We bought a new Mazda SUV last summer with all the newest safety features, which are totally distracting on the road, at first. I still stop by the dealership to ask “What does this button (set of buttons) do again?” and they smile and show me.

    I once managed to lock the rear hatch, somehow, still don’t really know what I did, they helped get it open.

    I had filled it with trash bags to take down to the county road where the trash pickup is… then had to figure out how to lay the back seats down to get the trash bags out. Next stop was the dealer, where they didn’t ever figure out how i locked it up, but did get back open again.

  115. 115.

    Immanentize

    December 23, 2019 at 12:56 pm

    @Yarrow: no bueno.  I am sorry for the loss of your friend. IMHO The reasons funerals are not generally (should not be) televised, save for national mourning is that the experience is meant to be experienced, surrounded by others living. Its rotten you couldn’t be there for at least that comfort during the ordeal.

    Hang in there, we are all here in one state of unhappiness or another together. I’ll get your back, you got mine before.

  116. 116.

    Immanentize

    December 23, 2019 at 12:59 pm

    @satby: Yes, I did once call a repair person when my dryer cord got loose, but was still mostly plugged in….
    Not so lucky as you — $40 house call fee. The price of my haste and idiocy, I figured.

  117. 117.

    Yarrow

    December 23, 2019 at 1:25 pm

    @Immanentize:  Thanks. Given the timing of it, one family member was overseas and could not get back for it and other long time friends who wanted to attend had already made plans to be out of town for the holidays. I’m glad I got to watch but it is a bit of a lonely experience once it’s done. I’ve been texting and emailing and have had one phone call with those who were there so I feel a bit less alone now.

  118. 118.

    opiejeanne

    December 23, 2019 at 1:58 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: They put me on a cough syrup with something that made me sleep all the time, but I mostly slept sitting up/half slumped over on the sofa.  It suppressed the urge to cough by shutting down the post-nasal drip but also made me sleep for three days. I don’t think it had codeine in it or I would have been high as a kit half the time, and coughing up all of my socks by day 3.

  119. 119.

    opiejeanne

    December 23, 2019 at 2:36 pm

    @Kay: Have her spit on an ant. If she’s having a girl the ant will curl up and die as if sprayed with Raid. If it’s a boy the ant will just be wet.

    Supposedly Native American in origin. I don’t know but it’s been right every time I’ve managed to convince someone to do it.

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